Midian
by Byakko
Summary: Dracula was Alucard's original name, and literally means Son of Dragon. What if that was true, to an extent? Alucard is the No Life King, but there are other things older, and stronger... Yup, I'm back peeps TT
1. Vandal

**Author's Notes:** Hiya guys! I guess you'd know me if you've read my Hellsing Musical and Questions for the Undead fics. Yeah, so, you probably think I only indulge myself in humor, right? Sorry fella, quite wrong. I do write pretty serious if I want, thing is, I don't like to take myself seriously. 

But when I do, this is the result. I've decided this would be a teaser, till I'm finished with my Musical project and my other fandom fic. Once done, hopefully I can start on this one. 

This fic is set in no particular time or setting, just Hellsing, and no Incognito or whatever. I like the freedom. I'm not sure yet whether my characters will be in character or not, but frankly, probably not. Why? Because this is AxC fic, and basically, they are usually not totally IC. 

But as far as the pairing goes, don't expect something fluffy or...whatever. Cause, I was never romance writer, gets overly dramatic when I do that, but at least on the hinting side I suppose. 

But I've got my fic penned down properly, should be pretty satisfying. So without further ado, this is my first, and probably only, serious Hellsing fic. This is a teaser, so don't expect much from it or any other chapters coming in soon. I'm just doing this cause I don't want to forget later to write this fic ;p Bad memory. 

A brief introduction to this fic. It focuses on Alucard's past, but don't expect the expected slew of old vampiric aquaintances, oh no. In fact, I think it's safe to say there is little vampiric activity besides Alucard or Celes. Hopefully not to deter you, I must say that this fic contains three made-up characters. One is the main reason for this fic, the other is the third party that helps to move the situations along, and the third is not really important, but sitll moderately essential. 

So, read on, and hopefully I'll get support to continue 

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"Another church was burned down in 54 Pennington Street last night. As usual, no survivors, and the bodies of all the nuns were missing," Walter said casually as he laid the rolled up newspaper on the white table. Integral helped herself to a cigar as she laid back in the summer chair, uncharacteristically relaxed. 

Sir Integral Hellsing was enjoying herself on the highrise patio of her manor. A table and chair had been set up so that she would be able to enjoy tea out in the sunshine instead of her darkened office. It was a beautiful day, with the sun not too high or bright, and the wind blowing not too strongly. 

Plus, Alucard naturally not being able to disturb her for once. 

She had agreed to such a casual rest when Walter pointed out the lack of vampiric activity for the last three weeks, and suggested a much deserved rest cure from her work. 

It may have been a simple afternoon tea, but to Integral, it was a rare luxury, one which she was more than happy to finally be able to enjoy. For once, she felt unstressed, free, and contented. 

She breathed in deeply on her cigar as she picked up the paper and read the front page, scowling at the headline. 

"The third one this week. Are the police so incompetant that they can't stop common vandals?" she sighed as she flipped open the paper. 

"These vandals seem to be very well-versed in pyrotechnics and well equipped, if I don't say so myself Lady Integral. The church was leveled flat and yet, there was hardly any explosion, nor disturbance noted before it," 

"And of course, the missing nuns," Integral said absentmindedly, flipping pass the World News section. 

"Ah yes, the missing nuns," agreed Walter. 

He bowed and left to fetch Integral another fresh pot of tea, letting her relish her time alone with the newspaper. 

But the afternoon bliss was not to last for long. The silence of the day was suddenly shattered by a bone shaking explosion. Pushing herself up immediately, Integral threw the newspaper away from her as she stared wide-eyed and transfixed by what she saw some blocks away. 

A great column of fire that was blood red, yet seemingly transparent, rose up into the sky, roaring and surging with an eerie life. Through those glass-like flames, Integral could see the church she personally favoured, crumbling and disintegrating with furious and unnatural speed. 

It was not burning as one would see a building to, no, the church was dying. As strange as it was, Integral could not put it in any other way. Even from the distance, she could see the bricks and mortar that had withstood decades were breaking away before their edges reduced to mere dust and toppled down in a crippled heap of rubble. The church sagged down in one way and the other, the traditional wood beams were fast victims to the blaze. 

A breeze was blowing yet the flames kept stretching up into the sky unperturbed, the tongues of flames so closely resembled fingers and claws that Integral thought they looked like they were worshipping someone. 

A minute went by, the flames continued to burn strongly and Integral remained unmoving, leaning on the white railing of the patio with both hands gripped around it. Only the all too late sound of shouting, screaming and the wail of a fire engine broke her nightmaric revery. 

Her fingers were clasped in a tight grip, her arm shaking with repressed rage, pushing into the hard metal of the railing but the small pain was nothing compared to her shocked fury at the sheer audacity. 

Suddenly, she felt the ground and railling beneath her shaking uncontrollably, more so than even her rage could muster. The sudden intrusion of her thoughts caused her to hang on to the railing as she almost fell onto the ground. The Hellsing manor shook and wobbled, as did the other buildings of the vast city of London. The aftershock of an earthquake a great distance away, passed as a wave through the city for ten or so seconds, before finally stopping. 

Integral stood up shakily from the short ordeal. The chair had toppled over in the mean time, and the scone and cup of tea she had been prepared to enjoy were scattered across the ground. 

Cursing, she looked up again to view the blaze, but found it had diminished into nothing within the short spasm of the quake. 

*God damn it...* she cursed mentally, having no cigar to vent her fury on made it worse. 

Ignoring the mess around her, she strided back into the inner confines of her manor, her teeth clenched and fists curled. 

Walter was running quickly up the corridor Integral had just turned into. His attempt to assist the woman was brushed away brusquely. Realising that she was in not any way hurt by the unexpected quake, and the apparent rage she was in, Walter wisely turned around to follow behind her, back to her office. 

"I saw it, Walter, damn them all! In broad daylight! The bastards dared to deface God in broad daylight!" she spat distastefully as they turned another corner. 

"Oh dear, but I was more worried of the sudden shock we felt..." Walter replied calmly as he spun on his heel to keep up with Integral. 

"That doesn't matter! These are not 'common vandals' after all! That fire was apparently not normal, tell me if there is a fire that can completely destroy a building in under two minutes!" she rattled off nearly incoherent, so absorbed as she was. 

They turned yet another corner, and they finally reached the door of her office, which Integral had personally hoped she would not have had to open till the evening. 

"I'll be in my office for the rest of the day, Walter. Please bring another case of my cigars for me," 

"I believe the case in your current possession is a new one just opened this morning, Lady Integral," 

"Another case, please, Walter," 

"Of course, Lady Integral," 

As she turned to enter her office alone, Walter asked courteously, "If I may ask, what are you going to do, Lady Integral?" 

Without turning back, she replied, with an evident edge to her voice, "Wait for sundown," 

**Author's Notes:** Actually, I planned to make this chapter teaser longer, but it seems so poignant to end it here. So, I think it's safe to say you'll actually see more coming not too long from now. At least, until the whole teaser is finished. 


	2. Observation

**Author's Notes** Ha, three reviews. Not bad for a teaser chapter actually. 

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"Hmmm..." murmured Alucard as he slowly awoke within his black varnished coffin. The moon was still low, but the light of the stars shone in through the one window of his lair. 

"Strange," he said to himself, his red eyes glinting in the dark as he got up leisurely. 

"I thought I felt...a chill..." he continued as he got up, stood up on the edge of his coffin, faded light glancing off his pale face as he looked around his room warily, feeling the odd sense he was being watched, or that something was passing nearby. His perch and eyes gave him the appearance of a black raptor on sentry. 

"Heh..." he almost snorted to himself as he stepped down lightly. A presence in his room would be hard to miss, all his energy concentrated on one spot and yet nothing was detected. He must be getting paranoid. 

As he walked over to his table, he picked up the blood bag in the ice box, prepared not fifteen minutes before his wake, and tore off the nozzle end easily before letting the contents drip into his wineglass. 

He let the blood drip, he had no hurry. In fact, he hadn't needed to rush himself in anyway for the last three weeks. No trash vampire activity for three long weeks. The moon was in full circle and Alucard hadn't been able to destroy one single ghoul, let alone a cheap vampire. 

Oh sure, there was the massive wave four weeks before, with the sudden surge of vampires in the outer villages. But after that particularly enjoyable week, it seemed like not one was left afterwards, but Alucard doubted he had actually destroyed all the vampires in London. True, he had killed many, many many of them, but they bred like rabbits and their ins Either that, or they were suddenly keeping a low profile. That was very strange. If the Valentine brothers were any indication, it showed that even the stupid weren't liable to lay quietly for so long. 

Were they frightened? Of him? Ha! Of course they would be terrified of him! But not to the point of hiding in petrified awe... 

Alucard whipped his head around. Yet again, he felt the unexplained chill. He was a No Life King, one of the undead, bound to a unliving life in which he was very naturally cold-blooded. Therefore, just WHY was he feeling 'chilly' of all things? 

A few moments of survellience, and he shrugged it off with a drink from his glass of the chilled blood. 

"Hmm..." he noted immediately, that Integral was expecting his presence, from his empathic master-servant bond. 

"Finally, one of the fanged gophers decides to peek out of his hole..." he grinned as he started to pull on his gloves that bore his insignia. 

"A little bit of fun at last..." he hissed almost hysterically to himself as he pushed his glasses up his noise and pulled on his hat. 

"There had better be many..." 

He picked up his guns, magically transported them instantneously into his inner coat pockets, and disappeared into the shadows as he travelled through the walls and doors of the manor. 

-----------------------------

"You called, Master?" he asked immediately as he phased through the walls of Integral's office, right beside the portrait of her father. 

Integral was seated passively in her chair, a thin grey trail of smoke showing she had, and still was, smoking on her cigars. The third one of her second pack to be exact. 

"That is without question, Alucard," she replied. 

Alucard smirked and walked up the side of the desk. It didn't really matter whether he faced her or not, he could hear all the same anyway, not to mention he HAD to listen and do whatever whim she said in the end. 

"Do you know what I saw this morning?" 

Alucard laughed lightly, "Unfortunately, my eyes would probably be burned to their sockets by the bloody sun if I ever ventured in the morning, Master," 

"I saw," Integral continued, her eyes narrowing from annoyance and a innate rising distest at the memory. 

"I saw a church being burned down," 

"I should be celebrating!" Alucard laughed, Integral's voice only rose. 

"This is no laughing matter, Alucard! The fires were unnatural. They consumed the whole building and yet the bricks and even the paint did not blacken. It was as clear as water and yet it was so intense, entire sections of the building would dismantle and fall off into dust in less than five seconds. Within just two minutes, there was nothing left of the building except a square of mixed rubble!" 

"Tell me, Alucard, what kind of fire could do such a thing?" 

Alucard looked up quizzically, "Are you asking me that, Master? It's just hard to guess which of your questions are sarcasm, rhetorical, or are actually questions," 

"Answer me, Alucard," Integral growled. 

"Heh, dare I ask what makes you think I would know or all things?" 

"You surely haven't been just sucking blood and hiding under a rock all your long life, though I believe a vast majority of the time you were doing just that," 

Alucard grimaced just slightly, but Integral continued. 

"An unnatural flame, I would even think hellfire. Tell me if I'm right, Alucard," 

"You are not," 

"Good, that's a start. So you do know what it is, and now you will tell me," 

Alucard smiled and tilted his head back so as not to have to look at his master. It was then did he realise he had forgotten to take of his hat and glasses. Even Integral had forgotten that little detail. 

Heh, must be losing her touch... 

"And take off your hat and glasses when you are talking to me," 

Or not, he thought to himself in amusement. 

With a gracious air, Alucard took off his hat and glasses and placed them on the desk, with the glasses atop his hat. 

In fact, he kept straightening the pile for a few moments longer, which caused Integral to ask once more, more sternly this time, "What is the source of that fire, Alucard," 

"Hmm...if I told you, then you might just believe that apocalypse is at your very doorstep..." 

Integral frowned, "What is it?" 

"His infamy is etched in the Bible of course. Although it gives a very wrong account, I suppose it's fair enough. Just think of him as the Beast of 666," 

Integral's eyes widened at the foul name. 

"Although it's also, totally wrong," Alucard laughed. 

"Stop joking around and tell me, NOW," 

Alucard laughed again, "Patience is a virture, dear Master," 

But seeing Integral's anger being pushed to a dangerous limit, Alucard sighed and leaned forward just a little, just enough so that Integral's blue eyes and his red ones were more or less on par. 

"Tell me, Master, do you believe in dragons?" 

Outside the grounds of the Hellsing manor, just around the corner and hidden from the guards, a man dully dressed in a russet-brown trench coat slowly stood up. 

His hair was a black that bordered on brown, straight and shoulderlength. His eyes were rounded to a shape like brown almonds that tapered slightly at the edges. The pupils were also a clear chocolate brown, luminescent like darkened ambers. His skin was a healthy tan that also looked tempered with dark blemishes. He stood tall with slooping shoulders and a coat that brushed the ground and was voluminous, flowing like water in the wind. 

On his neck, a gold choker wound around his neck. It was about the width of an inch, the metal was thin as a sheet and looked like it would cut into his skin if it was bent the wrong way. All along its curved surface, light carvings of symbols and lost words were etched into it, looking weathered and almost invisible in poor light. 

The man's left palm had been placed against the rough side of the fence fortification ever since sundown. He had stood there unnoticed as he stayed quiet and unmoving. He had been waiting for Alucard to finally wake up. He had spread his senses all around the building to detect the vampire, and waited. 

He had to observe his soon to be adversary, measure his strength. He was strong, indeed, he must have been if he could still detect his presence. The No Life King would be tough to battle, he knew. 

But he had also detected another vampire. Well, not fully vampire, the undead scent lingered on her, but not as strongly. Strong by blood, weak by age. A servant vampire. 

Another convert... he almost groaned. 

He sighed and turned to walk away, while still gazing high at the the windows of the impressive manor. 

Looks like I've found my prey too...but she's fresh. This isn't going to be nice... 

With lingering thoughts, the man dressed in nondescript brown walked down the road, blending to the darkness the further he left the manor. 


	3. Familiar

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Integral frowned and snarled back to the vampire, "Dragons? A mythical fire-breathing lizard. What, you expect me to believe that a _dragon_ burned the church down?" 

Alucard leered in amusement, "Well, master, the fire you described seems to fit the description, although whether an actual dragon did do burn it down, is another matter..." 

Integral drew on her cigar and stared at Alucard irritably, "Dragons are myths, they don't exist. I thought someone of your age would know that," 

"In my opinion, master, someone of _your_ age would not have much say in the matter," Alucard replied softly, slightly menancingly. 

Integral frowned, and sharply replied, "Don't give me your rubbish theories. If it's supernatural, then all the more it is our business. I want you to take this mission seriously, whatever your personal opinions," 

Alucard laughed, "You always expect me to, but does that make a difference?" 

Integral ignored him and continued, "Because the Hellsing organization had never thought that these supposed 'vandals' were at the most religious terrorists, no investigations on our part were ever made," she lifted up a file from her table, "This was sent by the police department on my request, and is all the information that has been consolidated so far from the three previous cases," 

Integral looked up at Alucard, who had retreated away from the desk to stare at her father's portrait. 

"All the churches were also prominent nunneries," 

"...oh, nunneries...I see," Alucard mused in reply. The reply seemed...distracted, as Integral noted but passed it off. 

"The bodies of the nuns were never found amongst the rubble, and are suspected to have been kidnapped," 

"Vampires can infiltrate churches as well, you understand of course master?" Alucard suddenly interjected. 

"Not even the trash vampires are afraid of them," he turned slightly to look at Integral with one scarlet eye, "Cheddars' would be an excellent example of that," 

Integral frowned, "I do understand that; but the latest case was done in daylight and not even a true vampire like yourself would be capable of that," 

Integral looked down again at the documents before her, sifted through to one, and read through it quickly before continuing, "The latest one was also different. It was a cathedral that was burned down," 

"That doesn't deter from the pattern you believe, master. The cathedral was simply a show, to you, to everyone," Alucard laughed lightly. 

"A 'show'?" Integral queried. 

"'He' wants everyone to know 'he' is here, and 'he' doesn't fear detection," Alucard explained himself. 

"Who is 'he' now?" Integral queried yet again. 

"You don't believe in him, what difference does it make if I told you?" Alucard said simply. 

Integral sighed in slight exasperation, "Yet again with dragons," 

Alucard suddenly seemed to be a bit irritated, and almost snapped back, "Master, since it's clear the supernatural exist, why is it you are so adamant on the fact that dragons can exist?" 

It was Integral's time to laugh, "Because, Alucard, I can believe that vampires exist, that isn't difficult at this point," 

"But a dragon? It belongs to the realm of fantasy, along with unicorns, leprechauns, fairies and other such myth and legend. God never created them, and so they don't exist," 

She looked triumphantly at Alucard, making him look at her questioningly, "Vampires were once humans, humans who dealed foolishly with the devil and got what they deserved. As such, they exist, as an accident on the part of humanity, and God created humanity," 

Alucard was silent for a moment, but smiled in his usual fashion and laughed, "Excellent logic, master! Simply brilliant! I accept defeat," he then bowed graciously to her. 

Integral felt herself being mocked, but she stood by her opinion, no matter the thoughts of the undead fool before her. 

"Let's just leave dragons behind, and then we can get on with your duties," Integral started placing the documents orderly back into the file folder, and pushed it to the side of her desk not obstructed by Alucard's hat and glasses. 

She brought out a map of London from her desk drawer and spread it out before her. Red cross marks made previously in the afternoon showed the locations of the burned down churches. 

"I want you to keep an eye on churches during the night, especially those with nunneries. The 'vandals' are favouring the area around here," she circled with her finger over the general area the three churches belonged to, "There are only two more nunneries in this area, so keep an eye on both as you can," 

Alucard seemed a bit disappointed, "Oh? So I'm being a guard dog for the churches now, am I," 

Integral nodded nonchalantly, "You could say that, yes," 

"Naturally, you have to sought out these 'vandals' if you can find them, Alucard," 

Alucard smiled and picked up his hat and glasses from the side. THAT certainly made the job more appealing. 

"As you wish, my master," he bowed yet again, and disappeared into the darkness of the floor. 

Integral drew deeply from her cigar and breathed out a large puff of smoke. Hard to believe she actually liked fantasy novels when she was younger. But ever since she found Alucard, she never had quite the same frame of mind to read them anymore. She was brought up from young to know vampires existed, that they were real, that they were the bane of humanity and the single greatest threat to her and country. 

But prior to finding Alucard, she had never truly seen a vampire, only heard stories of confrontation from her father, Walter and some soldiers. 

Then she found Alucard, and things became more real than any story. What then, if the manticores, minotaurs, mermaids, imps, goblins and all such things were real too? Then, would she have an equal chance of being charmed away by a fairy, taming a unicorn, being whisked away by some great dragon... 

Integral shook these thoughts from her head, becoming angry at herself. She almost forgot the Bible was the book of God, and her storybooks were written by Margaret Weis. 

"He wants me to go burn another one again?" asked a man clad in white, his voice filled with amazement at the request. 

_Yes. He's hungry, spoke a voice from nowhere. It was like an echo, hollow and lofty, but it held tight around the area as its source was nearby._

"What! The one we got two nights ago was chocked full of nuns! Don't tell me he's hungry so quickly?" he shouted out. 

_Yes, there was a lot, and that was why it lasted him for two nights. Why did you think we bothered to waste our time on a cathedral in daylight?_ replied the voice. 

Clopping noises, like hooves, moved around the man as he scowled at the request. 

"Greedy pig..." he muttered to himself. 

A flute-like noise, along with a loud snort, sounded around him. 

Be careful or you would attract his anger, Tian, warned the unseen companion. 

"Whatever..." he muttered in reply as he started walking. 

The clopping and shifting grasses beside him showed his companion following him, side by side. 

_Have you seen Vladmir?_

Tian nodded, his russet hair falling on the breeze, "The vampire's powers are restrained by the seal, but he's become a lot stronger than the last we saw him," 

_Would he be too much trouble for you?_

"He might, but I think we're pretty much on par," he started tugging on his gold choker. 

"I'd think this stupid collar will get in my way though," 

_Don't be silly. You fight fine even with it on, the other said warmly._

The cloth on Tian's shoulder depressed a little, as the unseen one nuzzled him gently. 

"Thanks Neysa," he said appreciatively as the two finally walked out of the shaded park into the moonlight. 

The moon was not red, but pale like a baby's face. Maybe, because of the lack of vampires now in London, the influence of evil and blood did not prevade so strongly anymore on the city. 

"Neysa, you go first, I'll take some time to transform," Tian said as he began to hunched and bend to the ground. 

_There is no hurry, Tian. We will go together,_

"Alrig-" but he was cut short as his jaw began to contort, along with the rest of his body as he shrunk down to the ground and began to stretch and twist, taking on a different and new form. 

Soon, four legs were clearly seen to appear, stretching out and flexing with short claws. His snout was long, not so tapered in wolf fashion but wide with slight jowls in the manner of a typical dog. He flex his jaws and tongue as teeth itchily poked through the pink gums. His ears pulled from his skull, long and swiveling, with tapered points on each that stretched like whiskers and flittered in the wind. A line of shaggy fur started from between its ears, and it continued in both directions, going down his back and spreading all along it's bare body as well as spreading from that one point to cover his head in a fine carpet of fur. 

His body was slim and lean, paws large with five typical toes and average claws. Its tail brushed the wind and the wispy ends of long fur-strands trailed its own passage through the air. Its body was in a medley of different shades of brown, all meshed and messy together in patches reminscent of mud puddles. Its eyes gave out a faint, clear amber-yellow light, leaving only its nose and tongue the remaining splash of pink on its dark and dull form. 

On the whole, Tian had become an average, nondescript and mongrel dog. He shook hiss head, flexing his neck over the gold choker that gleamed on his short fur. 

"Well, let's go then," Tian spoke, with equal proficiency as he were in human form. 

He hutched down and lept forward with amazing thrust, his speed impossibly rapid, yet his form ran at a relatively slow pace. His paws made no sound, nor did it seem to make a disturbance on dirt or grit as he ran, a dull blur on no light and much mists. 

A flute-like noise sounded once, before the sound of fast galloping hooves rang out as well. 

"Ooooooh...the boredom..." growled Alucard in a slur. 

He yawned aloud, baring great white saber teeth in his canine jaws. He was in his hellhound form, with only two eyes opening blazing red once he closed his mouth, licking his jaws. 

He peered around the deserted street. First to the left... 

Nothing. 

Then, to the right... 

Also nothing. 

"Sweet death, take me now," he grumbled as he stood up, stretching his forepaws and neck, then his back, and onto his backlegs and tail. 

He had thought, that all things considered, this would have been a most eventful night. Compared to the last three weeks of endless endless endless ENDLESS disappointment, at LAST, he had a bloody mission. 

But what happens? The targets don't even show up, damn it! This was worse than being cooped up in the manor, or at least walking around London at night at leisure. 

He was doomed to stay put till dawn, and if his dear targets don't show up , he would be doomed to stay put here doing absolutely nothing but staring at a church of all bloody things till dawn. 

Two hours had passed since he left with his orders. As was ordered, he had made uniformed rounds on the two churches. One hour for each, and now he was back with his first. 

He padded around, outside the holy ground of the church, peering in with critical eyes, then retreating to some dark corner nearby and settling down again. 

Being in dog form made resting a little easier, he did not really mind sitting on the curb, but that might deter would-be targets, and he definitely didn't want to do that. 

"I want to shoot something..." he murmured as he closed one pair of eyes to rest, while leaving another pair above open. 

Downwind to Alucard, Tian had ran across over half a kilometre in less than five minutes, such was his supernatural speed. As he neared the gates and fences of the church, he lept high and long, right over the obstacles, and landed into the courtyard. 

Once his paws reached the grass and ground, he quickly reverted back into his human form. Walking around silently, he reached the nearest wall and placed his palm flat on the rough and hewn concrete. 

For a while, he was silent and still, but invisible waves of his sense spread through the wall, onto the floor inside, into the rafters, into the curtains, into the very cross motif that bore Jesus Christ proudly within. 

He could smell, he could hear, and he could touch. He spread seemingly spread himself throughout the building, down into the quarters of its denizens. 

"Neysa, to the right of me, left of the cross, down two flights. All along one level," he instructed as clopping hooves landed next to him, having scaled the fences as well. 

The clopping sounded once more as Neysa acknowledged the instructions. Two tufts of grass and a bit of dirt were pushed back as she reared, unseen by anyone, and charged into the area of the wall just to the right of Tian.

As her head was just about to touch the church, a radiant purplish lavender pool appeared on the wall, stretched wide and narrow. As she entered this portal, her invisible form shimmered into existence just before entering it, a narrow strip of space just centimetres thick wide. Through this small window, the shining and beautiful black coat of some great beast with a black, long-haired mane and tail. 

Tian watched until the last wisp of fur disappeared into the church. Then, he set out to do his part of the job. 

He flung his coat open, to reveal a white sword, made of pieces of large, thick bone vetebrae that interlocked perfectly. The handle was little more than a thinner, carved piece of bone. The tip of the sword was a talon or claw of sort. The slightly curved edge of this unconventional sword had been hewn and rubbed till it was sharp. However, the whole sword was overall large and bulky, thick and powerful, but not for much fancy swordplay. 

That is, if one had the skill of a human, but Tian, was not a vampire and not a human either. 

The sword was latched to the front of his right shoulder, so that it hung form his shoulder blade down to his chest. He flung his right arm out, and the sword flew into his open palm on its own. 

He swung it about for a while, before getting down to business. 

He stuck the tip of the sword into the wall. It cut through effortlessly, the edges that touched the bone blade turned brittle and crumbled slightly. He only pushed his sword in a few centimetres, and he kept the tip embedded as he walked along the wall, pulling the sword through the wall as he did so. 

Walking at a brisk pace, he went around the whole perimeter of the building, cutting through it like butter. He turned the fourth corner and walked on till he reached his initial cut; he joined the two severed ends and withdrew the sword. The church stood as sagely as before, not knowing its freshly wrought injury. 

Tian took a few steps back, and stuck his sword in the ground as he waited for his companion to return. 

She arrived not long after his end was done. The same purplish portal appeared once more in the wall of the church, and she lept through it. She was invisible, but not her human trail. Nuns, a dozen and more, all prancing and laughing in girlish happiness and bewitched joy as they willingly followed the invisible one. They held each other's hand in hand, forming a human chain, the one in front holding on to the tail of the invisible Neysa. Their eyes were unseeing to the scene around them, lost as they were in the mental illusion cast on them, yet they were also filled with the sincerest happiness, the innocence thought lost as they grew up. 

"A pretty good haul tonight," Tian said as he mentally counted the number of women who came through till the last came through, and the portal closed.

Yes, Gonard should be satisfied, Neysa spoke beside him. 

"Bring them out of the compound, I'll start the fire," 

Neysa blew a note into the air, and she lept across the fence. Despite the earthbound weight of the nuns, they too, followed her effortlessly flight, squealing in their childlike joy at the fun of it all. They will never suspect their fate, their heads only filled with a rollicking joy. 

Tian waited till they were a safe distance, and picked up his sword. He turned on his heel, and walked towards the fence as if to follow them. He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers once. 

Behind him, the wound of the building shone bright, shining tendrils of light seared through the building like veins and vines, creeping over and through the walls, windows, glass and tile, and woke none of the sleeping denizens within. They stretched till they reached the top and sealed themselves, enclosing the church in a bright red web. 

Tian lept over the fence, half floating in his human form, and snapped his fingers once more as he touched the ground. 

The tendrils seethed and strong rays of light shone outwards from them. The church looked as if it were cracking apart, like an egg's shell. Flames cut through the paths of the veins all around the church, charging and surging like scythes, uninhibited by the supposed 'blessings' upon the house of God. 

Finally, the whole of the church, touched and untouched by the veins, burst into the unwordly flames with a great roar that seemed to rumble from deep within the earth. It drowned the pitiful cries of those that were left behind to sleep, now torched by the flames that burned stronger than even hellfire. 

It was this roar that woke Alucard from his revery. All his six eyes flashed open in an instant. As he romped out of the alley to face the burning church, part of him cursed himself for not noticing the perpetrators approaching beforehand, while the other part of him was welling in quiet satisfaction of the destroyed church. The latter made his tail wag. 

"Wait..." he growled, his nose twitching. He didn't need the wind to sense a strong presence in the area. 

He galloped on his paws towards the building, coasting the fence until he saw the alleged 'vandals'. 

Similarly, Tian also saw Alucard, and breathed in the undead scent that prevaded on the hellhound. 

"He appears. Neysa! Get out of here, I'll handle the vampire," he hissed. 

Neysa did not need anymore bidding. She quickly galloped away, the trail of nuns floating along like a trail of human balloons. 

"So...this is what has been causing the human prayers so much grief," laughed Alucard, his back aching as his human arm burst through in a shower of black matter, his grip fastened on his white 454 Casull gun. 

But Tian did not respond to the apparent challenge. In fact, his sword flew back under his coat and he stared at the gun with pure nonchalance. 

"Hold it, vampire, I'm not going to fight you yet, not my orders," he almost hissed at the last word. 

He walked up to the hound, not detered in the slightest by the gun that followed his form, the dog's head followed as well, its six pupils rolling to follow. 

"Oh? Too bad!" roared Alucard. He had been inactive for three weeks and bloody hell he wasn't going to have his fun denied for another minute longer! 

The gunshot rang, the silver bullet flew towards Tian in an instant. In a flash, the end portion of Tian's sword flew out, a red tendon connecting it to the rest of his bone sword. It flicked and the bullet was deflected away. 

Alucard was a bit amazed, but only grinned wider in his dog face at the thrill of the challenge. 

"I have a message for you!" Tian said quickly, relising the vampire was beyond rational patience. 

"Oh?" Alucard laughed, his dog jaw dislocating and stretching wide as the muscles of its mouth decayed and fell away. 

Deep inside its throat, the upside down and leering face of Alucard peeked out to look. His continued to fire shots, and Tian dodged backwards as he whipped out his sword. 

His sword, comprised of bone pieces all connected by a single stretchable tendon, flew out and dislocated itself, swinging around Tian as he swung his sword arm powerfully. The flying pieces of invulnerable bone knocked and deflected away dangerous bullets as Tian shouted in exasperation, "Gonard says 'Hello'!" 

In the dog's throat, Alucard's face froze, his trigger finger stopped and his human eyes opened wide in shock. 

"Go...nard?" he almost gasped. 

-----------------------------------

**Margaret Weis:** Margaret Weis is one of the authors of the Dragonlance series. The series is extremely serious and tough to read, but I read it when I was about nine years old. As you can see, I was several reading levels ahead of my time. Since I could read it at nine, I figured Integral could do even more so. Dragonlance is a fantasy series, which naturally, contain dragons, elves, dwarfs and all manners of folk. In my honest opinion, it's a lot more real and serious than the Lord of the Rings. 

**Tian:** The name is Chinese hanyu piyin, which basically means the sound of the Chinese word written in English. 'Tian' has many different meanings, depending on the sound used and in what context. In this story, 'Tian' means 'Sky', and yes, Tian himself is Chinese. 

**Vladmir:** If you don't already know (and you should already know), Vladmir is the Prince of the country which I presently cannot remember, upon which the whole Dracula myth/story is based on. And if you cannot already guess, Alucard here is 'Vladmir' of the same. 

**Gonard:** This name is an anagram of 'Dragon'. It is also an anagram of another thing which I will not mention right now.


	4. Foe

**Note:** I just wanted to enforce, that Tian is suppose to look Chinese, and is Chinese. Therefore, he sometimes laspes into speaking in Chinese in his dialouge. These Chinese words are written in hanyu pinyin, and are characterized by being written in italics, like _this_. The Chinese words will then be translated at the bottom of the chapter. 

----------------------------------------------------------

Alucard stopped his assault for the moment, his eyes, already slitted, seemed to contract more so, if that was even possible. Tian, noting the vampires' sudden onset of rigid calm, retracted his blade back together and stuck the tip into the ground, one hand still laid across the hilt in preparation. 

"Gonard...Gonard is greeting me?" Alucard growled lowly, his eyes cast down and hidden by his black hair, as the rest of his hellhound form sloughed off like black satin and blended smoothly back into himself as he stood up on his two human feet, perhaps only a quarter of a head taller than Tian. 

"You heard me, vampire," Tian said matter-of-factedly, leaning on his sword as he eyed the vampire with an air of casual indifference. 

The night breeze passed through the some seven feet gap between them, one not of this world, but so casual that he could blend with anyone of the denizens of this world. The other, a corrupted one of this world, clad in the scarlet of blood. 

And these two figures stood eerily motionless, still in the still night, until the scarlet one broke their twin vigil. 

Alucard suddenly threw back his head, his gloved right hand clasped over his face as his fanged jaws opened wide in a toothed laugh. The laugh shook him from within, his tall body shook with each sound. His eyes were hidden by his fingers and mirth, and then his face disappeared from view as he arched his back in an impossible arc, his mouth pulled apart wider and his deep laugh went on without pause from his lack of need for breath. 

Tian looked up in slight surprise, his right eyebrow raised itself in query. 

"_Feng ah..._" he murmured at the strange scene. 

Alucard continued to laugh, his back arced so far that his hair fell and touched the ground in a small space of five centimetres of less. His legs stretched and bent awkwardly with the whole process, making one curious as to how the vampire kept himself from falling completely backwards. 

However, his laughter slowly became lower and drawled, gritting itself into a feral growl. Aluard's eyes opened wide and glinted with a vicious light, peeking through his fingers. 

"So...I was right..." he growled as his body flung itself back upright, moving almost like a strange spring of a demented jack-in-a-box. 

"That wrinkled old lizard _is_ here afterall, right here in London heh ha ha! And I almost thought that you," Alucard pointed the barrel of his 454 Casull in his left hand at Tian, who looked on in mild amusement, "You, somehow managed to duplicate his fire, maybe even killed him to get the necessary 'materials' for all I know," 

Alucard continued his insane guffawing, though it was quietened, Tian cocked his eyebrow again. 

Very disturbing man... and similar thoughts ran through his mind as he sighed outwardly, pulled his sword of its embedded position in the ground. He shouldered it, and looked prepared to walk away. 

"Okay, so you got my message, mission done, now I go," he said tiredly and turned around and started walking away. 

Alucard's grin widened, his hair seemed to flop about in an unusual looseness as he flipped his head up to leer at the retreating back of the silver-headed man. His Jackal flew from the confines of his coat and sprang into his right hand. 

"Oh no, please, don't go," he laughed as he raised both guns in a second and fired both simultaneously. 

The large bullets flew at their lightning speed, too fast for the unsuspecting Tian to react, not enough time for him to turn or to swing his sword to dodge or deflect. The bullets dug into his back, severed through smooth skin and muscle easily, tearing through deeply into the flesh, blasting the front of his chest open in a bloom of meat. 

"Aarch!" he gasped as the sheer force of the bullets pushed him of his feet, flinging him to the ground on his knees and flat on his wounded chest. 

He housed the glimmering bullets, embedded deep enough in the ribs to not fall out, and to gleam in the front and back in the moonlight as it streamed into his exposed flesh. The flesh was scarred, chared, burned and torn in teacup sized craters from the exploding power of the bullets, sickening and horrifying even beneath the tattered cover of Tian's robes. His robes were besieged by a torrid wave of thick red as his blood flowed outwards through the fabric, soaking it through and through. 

Tian's nerves were not paralysed by the pain. He felt it, all of it, this great pain as he lay twitching slightly on the ground, his sword a feet away from his hand as he dropped it. He felt the pavement vibrate slight and heard the grit shift as the vampire walked towards, the laughter light in his voice. 

"Amazing. You're still alive?" Alucard jeered as his riding boots stopped inches before Tian's face. 

"Hurts doesn't it..." he laughed as he picked Tian up by the scruff of his coat. A mix of mumble, growl and groan escaped his throat as he felt what remaing muscle he had in his chest pulled and some tear. 

"But still breathing. Good, now tell me, what is it that Gonard wants this time? Mass destruction was never really his style, though he is excellent in it," Alucard gave a sideways glance to the cindering church, "I know he hates God but he can do so much better than this; sending a pathetic lackey out to cause a little mischief," he shook Tian and smirked at his pain. 

"Knowing him, he'd be liable to go on a bloody rampage on London. This is simply too quiet, for him," Alucard concentrated his gaze on the still pained face of the Chinese man he held in his grasp. 

"What are his plans, dying fool, what his doing here? Those nuns you took away, little 'snacks', I know. But he can get nuns as easily as he can destroy London, and that's plain elementary," 

He tightened his grip on Tian's neck, leering more so as he started gasping for precious breath. 

"Talk, will you, and can you not?" he started to lighten his grip instead, letting Tian get breaths of air. 

Alucard was too preoccupied to note though, how could a man with his chest blasted wide open, have functional lungs to breathe with. Nor to similarly note, that the man was not becoming pale from his massive loss of blood. 

"...not..." Tian gasped and croaked, "...not orders...wouldn't say even if I could..." he half-snarled. 

Alucard's smile grew wider, if that were even possible. 

"That's what I want to hear," he slurred as he started to switch his position in holding Tian. 

He held onto the front of Tian's robes with his left hand. Tian was about as tall as he was, and so when Alucard lifted him up slightly so that they were face to face, Tian's toes brushed the sidewalk. 

With his right hand, Alucard pulled Tian's face to the side, exposing his neck. Alucard grinned, "I don't think you're anymore human than I am, I can smell it, I can see it. But you're not a vampire either and that makes me wonder..." 

He opend his mouth wide, his fangs gleamed pearl white in the moonshine, but he continued to speak, "I haven't fed on anything living for quite some time, I'm not picky either. I'll take your life, and you will tell me just what that old lizard is planning," 

He started to lower himself on Tian's neck, eagerly anticipating the taste of fresh blood. Tian's eyes widened, and then creased in anger as he growled fiercely. His sword sprang into his hand from the ground in a flash, and with unprecedented strength he yelled in his native tongue. 

"_KE WU!"_" he swung the sword diagonally upwards through the vampire in front of him, searing through the body as easily as he had done with the church walls. 

Alucard could hardly react as most of his upper body, head, and right arm fell away from everything else. This would have been bad enough, but Tian was furious and continued his assault the moment his toes had a firm stand on the ground. 

"Aaaaaargh!" he yelled and snarled as he kept swinging his sword in front of him, cutting Alucard from two, to four, to eight and more. 

His slashes were blurs, and he did not stop till what was Alucard fell on the ground in a black, satin-like pool of dark matter and vampiric essence in general. 

"What..." the voice of Alucard filted from the mass, as many many eyes opened wide to peer the solidly standing Tian, he himself glaring back down with silver eyes alight with a furious white-hot fire. 

Tian made a slightly hacking motion, arching his back and chest. His cheeks were pressed outwards by the objects in his mouth, and he spat them out. They clattered on the sidewalk; Alucard's silver bullets. 

"_Ni zhe ge ke wu de mo gui..._" Tian snarled as he rubbed his neck subconciously. 

"You were right, I'm not human," he switched to English once he was sure his neck was untouched, "Neither am I a vampire, at least you figured that out. But you are so stupid not to find out exactly what I am before you decided I was dinner, you moronic idiot," he growled, staring at the mass before him. 

Alucard was trying in vain to pull himself together, at least to strike out at the obstinate face before him. But was shocked to find he was very much, almost paralysed, and though it had never bothered him before, a throbbing pain. 

"Ah...what have you done to me?" Alucard almost declined to ask, at the price of his pride to be looking up at such a man. 

Tian lifted up his blade, and traced the tip in the nearest section of the black mass. Immediately, Alucard felt the throbbing pain increase to become a searing, burning one that stretched into all his being. 

"Yaarrrg..." he tried to control his own scream, and Tian was gracious enough to stop after a second or two. 

Tian was smirking, literally looking down on the vampire as he explained with a mock bored tone, "This blade here, is made out _that_ dragon's bone. Very strong stuff that not even a vampire could break. And this here," he pointed to the curved tip, "Is a talon from that 'old lizard', a talon that's still edged by a supernatural toxin that destroys just about anything, including vampires." 

"But you are different of course. If you had been a normal vampire, you would pretty much be done for. Be thankful you share Gonard's blood, vampire. Well, actually, you should be thankful he shared his blood with you," Tian grinned. 

Alucard felt his anger rising. He owed the wrinkled lizard nothing! Not after what he had taken from him! 

"His blood makes you only suffer a stint of paralysis and some pain, but that's about it. Nothing more than a snake bite if you ask me," 

Tian leaned over to peer closer at the mass, and saw it quiver menancingly as Alucard tried to push against the effects of the toxin. 

"Well then, I'm still curious, who are you? I dare ask some renegade regenerator who has decided he hates God instead and now wants to work in the ever so ironic position of the anti-Christ?" Alucard's voice motioned, as he silently gave up on his attempts. 

"Heh, your God, is not MY God. Understand?" Tian said as he stood up straight again. 

"Goodbye, _junior_. You'll see me soon, I'm sure of it," Tian finally ended, walking away. 

Junior! Alucard was shocked at the remark. Junior! What the bloody hell did he mean 'junior'? 

"Oh, and if you are wondering about Gonard's plans, well, I can't really say of course but," Tian turned back and smiled with a twist of the mouth. 

"I'd watch over that _xiao dian zi_, that little bit of yours, a bit more," 

Alucard had plenty more questions and 'remarks' to cross with the bastard, but he felt once more, the frustration of having a puddle for a body. 

Tian switched into his white dog body even admist the stares of the awoken people that were peering from their windows in great shock, grief and amazement. They had probably seen the vampire and him fight as well, but that was not Tian's concern. 

He lopped away, at the breackneck speed of blurred brown that noone could identify, and disappeared from that street of London and a destroyed church. 

And one pissed off puddle. 

-------------------------------------------------------

** Chinese translations:**

_Feng ah_: In this case, Tian's calling Alucard 'crazy'. 

_KE WU!_: Hard to explain. Literally and usually means disgusting/horrifying/criminal that sort of thing. Here, Tian is leaning on the 'disgusting' more. 

_Ni zhe ge ke wu de mo gui_: The literal meaning in English is pretty lame "YOu bloody disgusting/criminal/ monster!" but Tian is really saying in the spirit of 'YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!" 

_xiao dian zi_: Tian already translated it literally, meaing 'little bit'. It is a diminuitive term and can also be considered a term of affection when used with younger persons, like little brothers/sisters/cousins, or from a old man referring to a young child.


	5. Orders

----------------------------------------------------------------

_Several centuries ago..._

"I can't...harm...my own people..." the man, with a pale face, and long black hair, was doubled over and crouching as if from some inner pain, his hands clutch over his stomach. 

But you must feeeeeeeeeed... some voice said, whispering from all the dark corners of the simple stone cathedral, it's tongue slithering over cold nightwind-blow cobblestone and over the rough grit of the floor. It's breath was a light mist that flowed from cracks and over the corners of the wooden benches for human worshippers. The figure of God, crucified in loin cloth and immortalised in his metal representation did nothing to deter this dark force that crept within the confines of the supposed holy sanctum. 

That figure, did nothing, did not give comfort nor solace to the suffering shadow of a man kneeling before him. 

You must feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed..." breathed the voice so softly, so gently, crawling with thin fingers into the crevices of the man's ears. 

What purpose, other than to serve their prince, were they saaaaaaved for? cooed this little voice that tormented the man. 

The man wanted to say, he saved them so that they could live in peace, live without fear, of anyone anymore. 

They live in fear of _you_, my priiiiiincccccccce... jeered the tiny voice, that in its whispered form still thundered in volume within the man's troubled mind. The cathedral was otherwise silent. The man had not the strength to say what he wanted to say. 

Feeeeeeeeeed...a man a day, well, you saved far more in yesterday's fight... continued the voice, its tone so persuasive, and...kindly. 

"...now...damn you Devil...I only agreed...I only agreed..." the man, his anger rising, managed to find his voice. 

The voice was silent, but the man could hear far off laughter. The man, his unnatural red eyes flashing, glared at the surrounding darkness, where faces made of mist sometimes formed and smiled and laughed for moments before bursting apart again. He struggled against his pain, his hunger, as he croaked, "I only agreed to take this curse...to help my people! I will not...I will not be, like another scourge upon them like the Turks!" he snarled, his sharp fangs in the moonlight filtering through the tinted window of the cathedral. 

You won't be like the Turkssssss... slurred the voice once more, surrounding the man, gripping his shoulders with solid fingers of cold. 

You are so much worssssssse...vampire... it laughed, its frozen talons pressed and dugged into the man's flesh, and he growled in anger and fury, but found himself too weak to disobey. 

Feeeeeeed...leave this placccce...it's ssssso cold...not like blood sssso warm... the voice cooed into his ear, it now being a sure presence on the man's back, a cold deadweight, cold as death indeed. 

And the man, the prince, felt himself losing control, he was already lost, he felt the blood call from the humble cottages just a few kilometres down the way of his castle, no, he felt the blood call, from all the corners of his nation. 

Let the blood flooooooow...all over your kingdom... the devilling laughed, its harsh breath flowing down the prince's spine as the moon became blood red. 

The man found himself losing to the demon hutched upon his shoulders, the lust in his fangs gripped him and ripped away what ever part of him was still human and humane. He felt himself rising to his knees, to go through village and cottage and house to hunt... 

"Would you corrupt this man then, devil-kin," interceded another voice, but not filting, not ethereal as the devlling's. It was coupled with heavy steps and the prince looked up, his ears so sure that the person coming from out of the thin air it seemed, was as real as he. 

The devilling hissed on the prince's back, its pupils rolling and glaring at the person before them. The prince was pushed down as the devilling leaned forward, so heavy that he could not even see the feet of this third entity. 

Don't interrupt me, us, him, from our task, old one! hissed the devilling. 

"Back. You...and they...and him...have no power over me," the man said slowly, surely, unhurried and unperturbed by the evil cries and whispers that came from all sides. 

Yeeee! the devilling seemed to wail, all its claws and talons clawing at the prince's back, and him powerless to do anything beyond keeping silence, he did not need to breathe anymore afterall. 

The darkness rushed, consumed the wooden benches, the stone walkway in between, the windows and walls of the cathedral, even the cross was unspared. The room was a horror, warped and distorted with devils and monsters, the cross became inhabited by mischievious demons and the eyes were given rolling pupils that peered at the third man, the figure of God's tongue wagging. 

He is ours! all the evil things screeched in a single voice, dotted with a medley of growls and feral snarls. 

"Bothersome things..." the man breathed and suddenly, the prince felt no more weight on his back, no more coldness that pressed him from all sides, no more sounds of nighttime horror. 

Just the normal, innocent, emptiness of a building at night. 

"I can take whatever I want from them..." the man mused to himself as the prince looked up in bewilderment at what manner of person, or creature, could dispelled the forces of the Devil with a single breath in a single moment. 

But all he saw was a normal looking man, of no special dress, nor face, nor bearing. He was not in extravagant garb, nor was he in beggar's clothes, but simply having the look of a contented and fine man, though with tired eyes. 

His eyes! The one point of strangeness in all his plainness! The prince, equipped with all his new senses and enhancements, could only find the one difference this other man before him had was gold eyes. They were not a yellow of sickness, but true gold that shone in the moonlight in a different way from his own somewhat luminous scarlet ones. 

"Who...who are you?" the prince queried, his voice unrepressed now except from his own unnatural hunger. 

"If you want a name, I can only give you something easy to remember, easy to call. I never needed a name," the man said, looking down at the kneeling prince nonchalantly. 

"But if you wish to hail me, then you may call me Gonard, and only that," 

The prince could not really reply, for he did not know what to say. Who was this man, who could dispel demons, who saw him for what he was, a demon himself. A vampire, a feeder on others that were his own kin. This man no doubt knew, the prince could feel it. But noone must know, what would his people feel if they found out their lord was a damned creature? No, this man must die, and he must feed. 

The prince grinned maliciously. 

He had harboured his hunger for many days now, feeding only on the fallen blood of enemies in fields on the pretext of searching for his rightful 'spoils of victory'. He could satisfy his hunger, and keep his secret hidden if he killed this man. 

Yes, that was what he would do, the prince thought, his eyes glinting in excitement as his supernatural strength was made ready for him to tear the common man before him apart. 

"You would try to kill me then, I see," the man looked on in calm and expressionless nonchalance, his gold eyes looking directly at the prince's predatorial red ones, and the prince froze when he could not fight that gaze. 

The man knelt before him at that moment, and held out his arm before the prince's arched fangs, his eyes never leaving those of the prince. 

"You are a good man, with an honourable purpose but with a foolish heart, spirit, and only human" Gonard said almost sadly, his eyes still holding the prince in awe. But the prince could hear clearly, and his mind was still his own. 

In fact, his mind was clearer than it had been for many nights. It was as if, that golden gaze was pushing back the devil's hold and leaving him with his own soul and mind again. 

"I pity you, dealing with the devil. You are his pawn now, for while your undead life continues. That is forever, you will understand, until such is time to perish. But even that is a long time," the man continued, his voice growing sadder. 

"So, I ask you if you would, decide this while you are your own. I think you would want to spend this everlasting quarter of your life free, won't you?" 

"Of this curse?" the prince said hopefully. 

"No," Gonard said steadily. 

"But, you can expel those devils away even though they could enter and corrupt this holy place!" 

"And you would think me so holy man? Some, herald of your God?" his voice tinged with anger, and his eyes glinted that slightly. 

"Some building of rock and stone and gravel, with metal moulded in a mere shape, is it because of those things that you thought you could find protection here?" 

"You can no longer face that God of yours and ask him for help. His supposed forgiveness? It is nothing more than tales in a book, as the devils are, tales of a book that is just popular because there are no other books around," 

"Man are foolish to give power to primitive things. Whether it be themselves or their creations it does not matter, both are too young to understand anything worth more than themselves, and that is everything," Gonard said lowly. 

"Listen, Prince Vladislaus of Wallachia, you cannot be free of something of your own doing, and I have no obligation to help you if I could. I only give you this, freedom of the devil, that is all I can give. And perhaps if you wish help, I can give that, but only so far," 

"Freedom of the devil's influence, do you mean that?" the prince once more hopeful, forgetting the previous conversation for the rewards of this new one. 

"Indeed, that would be exactly what I'm offering. You would be a vampire, you would need to feed. I can sate it for you today, but you must understand that you must still find other men, and feed as your body needs. It is all necessity, and you must accept it," Gonard said, he raised his arm higher, closer to the prince's hungry fangs. 

"Take my blood now, and what will follow, will follow. Freedom comes at prices, mine is the best," 

The prince needed no more bidding. He lunged at the offered limb and sank his teeth deep into the flesh and muscle. He ripped and tore until the blood ran more freely and drank the rich blood as it were sweet nectar. It was to him, and though he felt he had drank far beyond what he should take, but Gonard made no complaint, and the blood never ceased... 

"Best price indeed. Should have asked for the market list, shouldn't I Gonard?" mused Alucard as he remained paralysed as a black pool, staring upwards without really seeing. 

"You had the most delicious blood though," he continued. 

He wondered just how mad would Integral be to learn he failed in his mission... 

"Integral, Sir!" saluted the officer, snapping to attention as Integral stepped out of her private Rolls. 

"Is the situation stable?" she inquired as she shut the door behind her, straightening her dusty baige suit. 

The question almost seemed redundant. The screech of police and fire sirens, the chattering collective of policemen, Hellsing operatives and anxious pedestrains. The whole block and those up and down the street were awake in the extremely hours of the next morn. No moon, red or pale, was available to shine down on the scene, its face covered unceremoniously by dark unseen clouds above. 

But there was really no need; the orange, red and blue light of police cars and fire engines, the spotlights of late-sleeping newsgroups, the strobing flames of the smothering church... 

Everything was clear enough. 

She was led to the tent that housed what was supposed to be her best operative. It was flanked by guards more for keeping him in than keeping anyone out. She looked around at the mess behind her and frowned. 

"Why is the media on the premises?" she asked the officer. 

"This is a residential area, sir, we can only block out this part of the street, but the residents and civilians are free to talk to the press," explained the officer, steeping sideways as he pushed back the tent flap, careful to keep a foot of distance between him and the danger within. 

"See to it you keep them quiet. Send a message back to headquarters immediately and get out team down here before this whole bloody mess is splashed cover to cover by daybreak!" she snapped irritably as she stepped into the tent. 

The officer bowed quickly and dropped the flap the moment Integral was inside, and hastily scooted off to complete his orders. 

"Cranky in the morning, aren't we, Master?" slurred Alucard. 

The tent was unlit. Not surprising since Alucard was pratically covering the whole patch of ground in his ill-disposed form. Noone, in whatever state of mind, was going to risk standing in him just to install a lightbulb. The soldiers who had set up the tent as it was, were brave enough to have ventured this close to the vampire as it was. 

The fabric was thick and heavy enough to keep out prying eyes, but the bright lights outside illuminated the inside of the tent in bright flashes, while the din outside still managed to permeat through. Integral briefly provided some light as she lit a cigar, but nothing more after. The inside of the tent was a surreal dark, and Integral would just about be swallowed by it save for the orange embers of her cigar and the tiny glint of her glasses. 

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Alucard," she almost growled. 

She looked in no particular direction, it did not matter, he could hear her all the same. Darkness or vampire, she faced the same thing. 

"Oh...where should I start first..." Alucard once more slurred almost in an amused tone. 

"Start with your primary objective. Why do I have another destroyed church on my hands?" she demanded. 

"A careless mistake on my part..." 

"What," she punctuated, "mistake?" 

"I fell asleep," Alucard replied simply. 

Several bright, red-rimmmed eyes blinked and became clear in the dark, llying flat and expressionless on the ground where that formless that was Alucard lay somewhat hapless. 

"You fell asleep!" Integral yelled angrily. 

"Well, not exactly. But absolute boredom does lull you into a rather daze state, don't you think Master?" 

Integral closed her eyes and started messaging her temples, a vain attempt to clear her throbbing migraine, a result of being woken up too late and too early, nausea of bright lights, and noisy sounds, and a general but deep dislike of incompetence. 

"I did wake up, eventually, when the chuch was burning anyway, but at least I found the perpetrators," Alucard continued nonchalantly. 

"And daren't I ask..." groaned Integral. 

With Alucard in the state he was, it could only mean failure. 

Failure was not a usual term you would use in the same sentence with Alucard. Despite her grudging hatred of all things dark and evil, she had to admit that Alucard was good at his job, the foremost thrump card of the Hellsing organization. 

Integral was willing to bet that Alucard had a fully successful record when her father was at the reins of the organization. Figures hell was going to freeze over during her time. 

"A most...interesting target, I must say," Alucard mused. 

He was having mixed...opinions of the lackey of Gonard's. On one hand, Alucard was going to make him suffer, excessively, for the humiliation. On the another hand, he could prove a most worthy opponent, neight holy human or vampire of any sort he was aware of. He was far more interesting than Anderson for the matter. 

Other than wanting to kill him, Alucard was admittedly rather curious of the lackey. 

"For the love of God please do NOT start that discussion about dragons," 

"Actually, I have pretty much decided that that topic is well beyond your grasp," 

"Don't make me soak you up with a sponge and plunge you into holy water, Alucard. The thought is just too appealing," 

Alucard chuckled a little, some of his many eyes half closed in mirth. 

"This whole isn't directly the old lizard's doing. Maybe he's lazy, or planning something bigger..." 

"Quiet! I said I did not want to talk about fake mythical rubbish!" Integral yelled. 

Alucard kept respectfully silent after the outburst. Lack of sleep, annoyance from lights and sounds, loss of another church, possible over consumption of tobacco, made his master a ticking time bomb of apocalyptic proportions. He could not take her earlier threat lightly. 

For several moments, the blinking puddle and the very tired and exasperated woman with her fingers pressed at the sides of her forehead, were silent. 

Finally, she sighed and dropped her giners. Her eyes were still closed with the folds of stress and fatigue showing, the embers glowed more intensely with the rush of air going through as Integral drew deeply on her cigar. 

"I'm not going to spend what's left of my evening talking to a puddle," she began, her eyes opening to shoot a stern gaze. 

She turned around and pushed back the tent flap, Alucard thought that his master was just leaving him, feeling indignant at just being left on the ground. Then again, he thought to himself, being a deadly puddle did have its diginities, when compared to being a deadly sponge... 

But Integral did not leave the tent. She stood at the entrance, her form outlined by the discoteuqsih lights outside. 

"Officer Hibbery, send for Alucard's coffin to be brought here immediately," she ordered the closest officer, before ending the stream of artificial lights as she let teh tent flap fall. 

"Can you move, Alucard?" she asked. 

In response, Alucard tried to get some control his formless form with considerable effort. The pain from the dragon poison had subsided, but it left Alucard with the funny feeling of loftiness when he relaxed, and a heaviness he was not used to when he tried to move. 

However, move he did, in the most basic of definitions. Integral watched as the mass of eyes moved left to one end of the tent, then to the right. 

"Good, that means I wouldn't have to get a dustpan to scoop you up as well," remarked Integral. 

"I think that would have tested more than one's patience," Alucard commented as well. 

Yet again, there was silence and stillness within the tent. Alucard found that though movement had returned, he was still unable to assume his usual form. 

Master and monster were both left with nothing to say, and stayed in polite and wordless company as Integral's exasperation took a turn for the better. 

She broke the wordless exchange. 

"This situation has become out of hand," she started. 

Alucard remained quiet and waited for her to continue. 

"I was awoken to this mess by her majesty herself, Alucard," she said in a strained voice. 

"She informed me that although it is now confirmed that, by me and you, that the church burnings are supernatural in nature, it is easily regarded as religious terrorism in the eyes of the public," 

Other religious groups, Muslims especially unfortunately, have been naturally targeted as possible felons, while several extremist groups have openly advocated the acts as their own," 

Integral's tone suddenly changed to obvious fury as she spat out the next words, "Not only do we have a potential civil crisis on our hands, but Rome have also claimed that there is danger to the Catholic faction in London," 

If Alucard actually had a mouth to do so, he would grinned, widely, as he realised the true source of Integral's anger. 

"The Vatican has sent their operative, Alexander Anderson as an 'investigator' and 'personal protection' for their churches," she growled. 

Alucard laughed in glee. 

"That was quicky of them. Considering that we ourselves only got confirmation ourselves yesterday and today," 

"Meaning that the Vatican has already sent in Anderson for the last three or so days," 

"We don't know how much information they've been withholding. He might had had a romp through London for the last three weeks, which is more than I can say for myself," 

For the first time in the last 12 hours, Integral had the semblance of a smile on her face, "You should be very happy then. You are going on full alert and am hereby ordered to protect the last church in anyway necessary. You had better not fail again," 

"At least I know my target _will_ be there," agreed Alucard, the glee clearly evident in his voice. 

"Sir Integral?" querired a voice from beyond the tent flap. 

"Celes Victoria," answered Integral as she lifted the tent flap. 

Celes looked in curiously, Alucard's ebony black coffin perched on her left shoulder, much to the bewilderment of the crowd around. 

"The soldiers couldn't figure out how to lift the coffin and transport it here fast enoguh, so I offered to being it instead," she explained. 

"Heh, more like the soldiers were too scared to touch it," laughed Alucard. 

"Master?" Celes looked around, her red eyes trying to locate the form of her master in the darkness, which shouldn't be a problem for vampire naturally, but she found nothing in the tent save for Integral. 

"Lower, look lower, policegirl," he instructed. 

"Down here, policegirl," 

Celes looked straight down at her feet. Alucard had advanced closer to the entrance, and part of his black form just brushed Celes' foot, a large eye looking back up at her. 

Despite having seen her master dissolved into a pool of eyes before, it is kinda understandable for her initial shock. 

"YARAARGH!" 

"Don't drop that coffin on me!" 

"Who do you think you are stomping policegirl! Not the eye! Not the eye!" 

"...and I would have expected that Gonard would have had some perverted guy as his disciple!" yelled Tian angrily as he paced back and forth, waving his arms and his sword along with his right hand in wild gestures. 

"He was just hungry, Tian," said Neysa calmly, her form unseen but her voice rang clearly. 

They were in a cavern, somewhere unknown and unseen, total privacy for them. It went in deep, very deep. They stayed in a chamber further in from the entrance, but deeper in, downwards, their 'boss' took residence in the darkness, safe from any prying eyes and concealed within his own thoughts. 

Tian huffed a little, but his anger was quick to abide. It was not any big deal, but he felt self-concious about being nearly bitten by the vampire, and a guy for that matter. It made him feel of a shiver. 

'And the world will think me conservative.' he thought to himself, giving a snort of a derisive chuckle. 

He walked over to a boulder in the cave, reached behind it for his own private luggage and shifted through the cloth sack. Finally, he found what he was looking for, and pulled it out of the sack. It was a Chinese wine gourd, with a tassel tied around its middle. He pulled the top off and drank deeply the rich white wine inside. 

Sighing, he pulled himself up onto the boulder and leaned backwards, dropping the sword onto the ground as he relaxed. 

"One thousand year old thing," he mused as he swirled the liquid about, watching the little bit of it he could see at the top swishing back and forth. Always full, that gourd, one thousand years and _still_ good and full. 

He tillted his head back for another deep gulp of it. 

"Don't get too drunk," Neysa warned, her clopping reached the side of the boulder and Tian felt her looking up at him. 

"I won't," he responded, and immediately capped it and spun it about playfully by its tassel. 

"I've lived for two thousand years, but even I can't wait another millenium just to make a wine like this again," he laughed, "Millenium Chinese rice wine, gods what a name." 

They were both quiet for a while, Tian was staring off into space with an expression of thought in his eyes. He didn't know what Neysa was doing, never even knew where she was for most of the time, but he could guess she was doing the same thing as him. 

"Don't you think that Gonard has been...strange...lately?" Neysa asked. 

Tian looked a bit surprised, Neysa was usually the one giving him answers, since she always took the orders from Gonard. 

"I wouldn't know, seriously. But if it has anything to do with our mischief this last three days, I can only guess that Gonard wants to get down to more business since he's dug his way back to the surface," 

"All those years behind, we never, EVER, faced Alucard, only the servants he left behind. But now, Gonard has suddenly appeared above ground, and even ordered us to keep an eye on him so closely that he hasn't even left this new servant to her own devices yet. For all our long years in Europe, we have always only skirted at the bare brim of the vampire's awareness, keeping good distances both physically and in spirit. We've had never done as much mischief in the past as we have now. Don't you feel it is a bit strange?" 

"Like I said, Neysa, you would know better than I. I'm an unwilling party in this whole thing ever since it started five centuries ago," he tapped his choker and said nothing more, "I wouldn't care about the dragon," 

Tian was right, Neysa herself needed no choker or collar to keep her in company. She was here, with Gonard, willingly, her loyalty was sincerely given unlike Tian's forced one. She could feel the difference in the dragon when she met with him, and it frightened her. 

Gonard never resorted to gluttony, or such maliciousness before. She could sometimes barely see anything of him even in sufficient light. His scales had turned black some time during his centuries long residence in the earth, it masked the curves and lines of his body as light was literally swallowed into him. He was frightening, very frightening, even to Neysa. 

But she was loyal, she would not question him, a part of her feared him but her heart was most filled with love and compassion for the old one, and she had to stay loyal no matter what. 

Neysa let the subject pass, seeing her companion's disinterest, and began on a more immediate concern. 

"About the new servant, what do you make of her?" 

Tian paused in his twirling, and thought for a while. Then, he turned slowly around to face where he heard Neysa's voice last, and said sheepishly, "I don't know," 

"What?" 

"I don't know, seriously, anything about her. I only managed to detect her, but not actually observe her or spot her as of yet," 

"We've been here for four days already! Haven't you found anything about her!" 

"Um, nope," replied Tian. 

He immediately felt a sharp poke from Neysa's horn and yelped. 

"We want to finish this as fast as possible before the vampire tries to do anything, do you understand? We must maintain as much of our secrecy and concealment as possible in this venture," 

"He's already known about us," 

"Yes, but he doesn't know enough to stop us, and you must finish your job," stated Neysa sternly, poking him again. 

Tian nodded submissively, but said with a tinge of disgust, "I think it'll be the same as before anyway. That demonic mushroom is an irresponsible idiot and all his servants have so far been sluts to say the least," 

"I do as you ask me to," he said as he flipped back over to the other side, lying comfortably down on the boulder, "I'm a demonhunting hound of Heaven, and I have to be true to my nature." 

His eyes burned with bating fire as he continued, a little softly, "I wouldn't mind hurting her and him a little," 

"Don't worry Neysa, I'll carry out the order, just give me a few more days, and that servant of his will be 'judged' accordingly,"


	6. Tensions

The only sounds in the spacious and tidily bare office, was the rough scribbling of pen on paper. Integral labored over a considerable pile of paperwork, her eyes were red-tinged with lack of sleep, and the smoke from her cigar was not making things any easier. But that did not stop her from reaching for another and lighting it in a flash to replace the fifth stump that night.

Just then, a flicker in the corner of her eye raised her from the near catatonic state she was in that exhaustion had so generously laden upon her. A black hole appeared on the far wall, but its edges flickered and shimmered extensively, even as it radiated larger and larger.

Its creator lurched into the room as the hole halted to a size about two-thirds too small for Alucard. Its edges shivered even more violently, and it looked like it would threaten to cut off Alucard's left leg and part of his hat if he did not enter quickly enough. The hole closed with a silent snap as the vampire entered completely, but leaned almost immediately back against the wall with a show of effort from opening the portal.

Integral, appreciative for once for the distraction her undead servant provided, tidied her paperwork into a neat pile and pushed it graciously to the side of her desk.

She held her cigar between her fingers, "Feeling better?"

Alucard was sucking deeply and silently on a blood packet, that would have been his thirtieth within the last hour. Of course, many at first had to be strewn across the floor for his puddle of a body to reach, but even that took only six blood packets in total before he regained a substantial form.

He pushed himself slowly away from the wall, showing effort even in doing that despite himself. His looked heavily-laden, not walking proudly and leisurely as he would usually, but with a certain sag in his shoulders, and a strain in his neck as though it took much strength just to lift his head.

He shambled towards his master's desk, his pace slower from necessity then the stroll he enjoyed, all the while uncharacteristically silent.

Integral watched him with a studied gaze, noting all of this. His evident lack of power, his near entropy. It was disturbing, as she reminded herself that a single attack from their unknown enemy had done this to her best operative.

Quite a blow.

And it was disquieting.

Alucard finally reached the desk. His gaze was not focused on his master, though where else exactly was hard to see behind the sunglasses. He drained the blood packet finally of all its contents, and gave an audible sigh as he crushed the empty packet in his fist.

"Never, better," he quipped as he titled his wrist to throw the packet, but a quick glance from his master halted him, and he neatly twisted his hand to insert it instead to an inner pocket in his coat.

Integral looked on in professional silence as her servant retrieved yet another full blood packet from within his coat, and proceeded to feast on it.

"You have single-handedly consumed an entire two week's shipment within an hour," she said blandly. Her fevered and overworked mind raced uncoordinatedly with her discontent and mental reminders to call for a new shipment by dawn.

"Thus showing, how I've been in my feeding habits, for the past ten years. I hardly ever, ever binge, and this is...absolutely necessary as you must know," Alucard replied.

The pauses in his speech were showing his remaining journey to recovery, but Integral could detect at least, his returning sarcasm.

"The venom must be quite something. This is the first time you feel need to defend yourself. You must be experiencing the vampiric equivalent of delirium,"

Actually, I think 'hangover' is a far, far, far more appropriate term," replied Alucard, already halfway through his thirty-first blood packet.

There was silence for a while. Alucard was pressing down on the desk, possibly for balance but Integral was wise not to mention it. She let Alucard drain his blood packet first, and Alucard silently accepted his master's generosity by draining it within two minutes.

He pushed himself up and stood firmly on his own feet as he concealed the packet into his coat once more.

"If you feel well enough, proceed with the detailed report I wanted of this night's assignment," Integral said calmly. Alucard was probably in the worst state she had ever seen him. It did not just extend to the physical, but it was evident Alucard was shaken mentally. He was being too quiet.

Yet again, that feeling of unease troubled her though she pushed it firmly away this time.

"That's why I came, master," Alucard replied heavily.

Integral saw him barehanded, "Do you need anymore?" she asked.

Alucard replied with a wave of his hand, "Blood can only do so much. I'll just rest later. Besides, the police girl will need _something_ to tide over at least a week. Though if she does not make any motion to _feed_ in the next three days, I won't be so kind," he almost seemed to laugh, but he found even to begin to was tiring, and he let it pass.

"Begin your questions, Master. You know enough of what happened, what...'details' do you desire?" Alucard asked.

Integral breathed deeply, organizing her thoughts precisely, as hard. There were so many questions, and the best was always to start at the beginning. Naturally. What was she thinking?

"Damn!" she cursed, rubbing her throbbing forehead.

"Heh," Alucard let off a small laugh and a smirk at his master's expense, as Integral re-organized her thoughts.

"How are the burnings conducted? Do you have much of an idea as to its, procedure? Or tool perhaps?" she begin quickly, lest she lose her train of thought again.

Alucard shook his head, "As I had told you, the church was in flames when I was conscious to it. Though as for...a tool, I believe, oh," Alucard's usual grin was beginning to manifest once more, "Actually, the question is whether _you_ believe, Master,"

For a while, Integral was oblivious as to what Alucard meant. But slowly, her rest-deprived mind remembered, and caught on to his remark.

She made a deep, deep sigh.

"Dragons," she said statically, "Again. Fine then, just fine Alucard. Just get on with it,"

"Dragons or not?"

"Yes, just go on with it,"

Alucard smiled and began anew, "The perpetrator was carrying a blade made of dragon's bone and a dragon's claw, and even some tendons interlacing between the pieces. Which, of course, I suspect is also, a dragon's,"

He leered past his sunglasses to spot Integral's reaction, if any.

Integral knew this, and her eyes shot up in one quick movement to stare back at him with equal intensity, her face still calmly resting on her propped up hands.

Alucard grinned and pushed up his glasses to break off the line of sight, submitting this time.

The man claimed to...be an agent for the dragon. Which I am...suspicious about. I've never heard of a dragon hiring someone to wreck havoc, when one of its natural...imperatives is do so itself,"

"You sound like quite an authority on dragons," commented Integral absentmindedly.

Alucard smiled this time, a small smile.

"I know this dragon, I've met him before. He can be quite troublesome,"

Integral looked up with a raised eyebrow, incredulous to the vampire's claim.

"Really?"

Alucard nodded, his smile still evident, "I speak only the truth to you, master,"

Integral looked at the vampire skeptically. Just how far was she going to let her servant go with this joke? Then again, he was right, he I could /I only speak the truth to her. But that would mean...

Integral groaned again as she thought too hard.

'Fine,' she thought to herself, 'I'll believe in dragons tonight. But only because it beats having this bloody headache,'

Integral made a truce with herself, and her headache subsided once she abandoned that subject of thought.

"Very well, keep going," she told Alucard.

The vampire nodded, "What's...more, that man, the agent. He isn't very normal,"

"I would expect so. Look at what he did to you," Integral said pointedly.

"No, no," murmured Alucard, "I mean...as in...he isn't very 'usual', so to speak," Alucard paused briefly as the door to the office swung open with a creak.

Both master and monster averted their gaze to the door as Walter stepped in, carrying several files and ledgers, as well as some photographs. The pile was threatening to slip free from their coverings, and plummet on the steward, but he managed to swerve around till he reached Integral's desk.

With a small thump, he set the pile on the wooden surface, and sighed a brief sigh of relief.

"These are the news articles from the various tabloids that were present at the church. They are yet unpublished, but unfortunately we have no power over canceling their publication totally," Walter explained as Integral briefly flipped through the files, "Though we are allowed necessary 'amendments', of course."

Alucard took the opportunity to reach in and grab another blood packet.

Honestly, another missing would not make much difference anyway.

"They are mostly eye witness accounts. The details are more or less the same, though some I feel some are rather dubious," Walter continued as he leafed through the photographs till he reached the ones he wanted.

"However, they all said the same thing," he lifted up the photographs for Integral to see.

"A brown hound ran from the site of the church. At an amazing speed it seemed, since these two photographs," he lifted up another one in his other hand and held them side-by-side.

"Were shot barely two seconds away from each other. They were both made by a photographer who lived in the block opposite the church,"

Integral studied these pictures with great interest. They were grainy at best, but were clear enough to give a credible impression of a hound, or what was trying to pass off itself as a hound. The first was shot quickly while the creature was standing still, evidently still near the church; while the second depicted a dark brownish blur of the hound in flight. The latter was only able to show a clear picture of the face, while the rest were blurred from the creature's speed.

"Alucard, is this the perpetrator?" Integral took the clearest picture and handed it to the vampire.

Alucard sipped the last drop from the packet and took the picture between his fingers, bringing it up swiftly to his face to inspect it.

"This hound, or whatever it is. This is the church-burner?" she asked again, doubt weighed heavily in her tone.

"One of his forms, apparently," said Alucard as he handed the picture back, "I told you he wasn't 'usual'," he smiled.

Walter collected the other photo and slipped the two together, "You obviously must have fought him in a human, or humanoid, form. Could you describe him in the greatest detail?"

He turned to Integral, "I'll try to research this creature as much as possible, but I will need as much information as I possibly can get,"

Alucard thought in silence for a moment, recounting the man's features as best as he could. They were rather unusual, the features were...fine, he supposed, for the lack of a better word. Truly, if he were to give an honest comparison, the man had finer features than the denizens of this city or for this part of the world as Alucard could safely assume from experience. It was not hard for Alucard to recognize that the man was of a totally different race and country.

The only question is how and why he came to be Britain.

"He had long brown hair and was just a bit shorter than me. His eyes were narrowed and slanted. He had a fine and shallow face, not like the usual denizens of this city,"

Alucard shrugged.

"He looked a world apart. He wasn't European for one,"

"Or," the vampire added, "His human form at least wasn't meant to look like a European,"

Walter pondered the description while Integral pressed for more information from the vampire. Alucard continued, thinking back to his conversation with the man, "When he was talking to me, he sometimes lapsed into, what I suppose, is his native tongue. But it's hard for me to emulate," he looked to Integral with a quirked eyebrow, "though I suppose I could _try_,"

"Slanted eyes and a face with fine features..." murmured Walter.

The steward quickly interjected, "His speech, was it something like this,"

Walter spoke a toneless but overall perfect line of simple Chinese words in steady succession.

Alucard listened and nodded slightly, "The words are different, but they sound similar enough. The tone, the pronunciation and sound, it's like his speech,"

Integral looked to Walter, "Chinese?"

"Indeed, but simply because he speaks and looks Chinese isn't very helpful. We can't possibly pinpoint his origin simply because of his race! Especially not if he's Chinese, the possibilities of where he came from is near endless, even if we narrow it down to just the Asiatic countries,"

Integral nodded, and questioned Alucard once more, "What of his powers? I'm assuming he must have used them on you,"

Alucard grinned a little and nodded, "He's as much a human as I am, and he isn't a vampire either. But, besides healing himself, he never manifested any other power besides. I was hurt from a _dragon _bone sword," he chuckled as he said the last words.

Integral let it pass.

"A regenerator?" asked Integral cautiously.

"Heh, the same question I asked him. No, no, he is something more," Alucard raised his hand, palm outwards. With a slight shiver, the photo in Walter's hand slid out and floated into Alucard's instead. He held them up like Walter did before, to show them.

"He greeted me with much disdain. He possesses no fear, no apparent interest in what he does or what is it he was sent to do. He sees no need to conceal himself, and he possesses an as-of-yet unknown number of abilities, which I'm certain are close to rivaling mine if he wishes not to even use them against me,"

"And, he regards me as his _junior_," there was a slight laughter in his voice as Alucard stated the facts, the important ones, to his master and her butler.

"In his own words, his god is not our god," Alucard ended.

He was waiting, for the same conclusion to occur to the two humans as it had occurred to him while he recovered in his room, drinking packet after packet to gradually relieve the pain in his body and to heal it. It should be most disturbing news to Integral, but to Alucard, this was the start of a brand new game.

The vampires of old Europe were gone, and those of the new country were terribly flawed.

A refreshing, new adversary of untested proportions.

Alucard drew his tongue over his teeth as he contemplated this new sport. And he found himself anxiously waiting for the next round to start.

'It will be fun,' he thought to himself, rolling the thoughts of battle through his mind with playful indulgence.

He smiled wider and whispered quietly to himself, "Great fun,"

Walter was first to break the tense silence that had fallen, "At least we now can, quite safely, conclude he must be from out of the country, and probably out of the entire of Europe as well,"

Alucard replied with a silent grin. Walter adjusted his monocle as he studied the remaining photo, the one of the creature in full view, for the umpteenth time, before finally sliding it into his vest pocket.

"If some other religious zealot is running about London, it's one too many," Integral spat angrily, as she realized that the situation had just gotten bigger.

"We must never forget that the entire world does not...exist in the same way as Britain and in fact, the rest of Europe. The Asiatic region in particular, has its own beings to contend with, and they do so...differently, as far as I know. The creatures there are also far more varied than those of Europe, if all of the different cultures' abundant folklore is to be taken seriously," Walter addressed passively.

"However, that part of the world has never fallen under our jurisdiction, and even your father had little knowledge of the matters there. As far as the organization was concerned, it was only Rome perhaps, that posed a true foreign problem,"

Walter added steadily, "They did not wish to think much of the Asia continent. Of course, officially, their cultures and religions were of the heretics," he cleared his throat, seemingly apologetically.

"But not even Iscariot, in all their audacity, has ever dared to trespass into their affairs,"

Integra grit her teeth, not in frustration, at least not yet, but in anxiety. This was a situation none in her family had ever faced, and now she was to deal with a foreign affairs problem at all times.

The one time her migraine was an earthquake.

'Oh GRANDIOSE!' she subconsciously shouted in her head.

Alucard seem to notice, and guffawed quietly at the outburst.

"So, how are we suppose to capture this...foreign agent? If he is supernatural and working for some_one_,"

Alucard's beginning retort of a dragon being the one in control was suddenly, and forcibly, rebuked by his master's gaze before he had chance to utter a single word. He shrugged, and she turned away, satisfied, and continued.

"Then he will pay for these desecrations," she growled, with more than a hint of menace in her tone.

"That," began Walter with a note in his voice that signaled he was aware of a problem, a tone which Integral was quick was to pick up.

"Yes?"

Walter cleared his throat and looked meaningfully at Alucard, "Forgive me for pointing this out, but Lord Alucard was disposed off quickly and almost fully by this 'agent' last night, and still bears the after-effects of being struck by the 'toxin' the agent used,"

Alucard made a sound that was indistinct but seemed like a small huff of discontent, but he quickly composed himself and merely made a gesture of acceptance of the fact with a quick nod.

Walter continued with more ease, "If they were to fight again, there is unfortunately low possibi-" he caught himself and hastily remedied his sentence, "I'm sorry, I mean there is no guarantee of a certain victory this time round, as well,"

Integral pondered this for a moment while Alucard, with a silently growing displeasure from his wounded pride, began to make a few shotgun suggestions.

"If I can _avoid_ his bloody blade, there would be little problem," he snapped, "I wounded him; he heals and recovers far slower than I. If I was to shoot him relentlessly, perhaps with a few other well-chosen attacks, he would be easy enough for me to dispose of,"

"That's assuming that shape-shifting and swordplay are all that comprise his abilities, Alucard. We do not know the extent of those abilities. What if they were beyond yours?" Integral rejoined, eyeing Alucard gravely as she noticed his loss of control.

"They will not be, you're ancestors made certain of that," Alucard replied lowly and dangerously, "The laboratory, Integral, don't forget the other door you passed ten years ago. I am beyond the devil's and man's makings,"

"On this continent," Walter stepped in coolly.

"This is someone from out of this country, out of our jurisdiction, and almost out of our hands. There is more trouble then the news of an unidentified creature or church burnings. We are on the verge of civil unrest with the Islamic and the Jewish coming under fire, and not to mention several zealous terrorists being 'inspired' by these burnings," Walter spoke gravely, his voice heavy as he tried in his best capabilities to relay the enormity that the Monster was simply impartial to, and the Master was deviating from.

"If we were to throw in the fact that an Asian mastermind was behind this; or worse, a dragon, as Alucard has been insisting; can you imagine the chaos that would cause? Officially, this fact might not be even mentioned since it is tied in the supernatural, but then again," Walter sighed, "Who is going to be the scapegoat?"

There was silence for a while, with Alucard pondering on the suggestion he was not able to handle the foreign agent; and Integral finding herself being rash.

'Probably from the migraine,' she thought to herself, but she knew she had forgotten the, excuse the expression, 'real-world' problems at hand.

'Honestly, the supernatural ones are trouble enough,' she grumbled to herself.

"Walter, while I understand your anxiety," she began.

The steward looked up, his face was once more calm and placate, but there was a hint of distress in his eyes, and Integral found herself trying to reassure him this time, as she spoke steadily, "First things first, we **must** eliminate or capture this agent, before his does even more damage,

Walter nodded in acceptance and understanding.

Suddenly, Alucard spoke up, "There's something both of you don't seem to understand,"

The vampire's voice was heavy with a tone of contempt, exemplified by his obvious surly mood. It incensed Integral, and made Walter uneasy.

"This 'man' is not an 'agent' or the sorts," Alucard continued, his eyes seem to flash dangerously, "He is like me before your family captured me,"

Alucard stood up without a support and peered into his master's eyes. The red tint in them seem to be glint a little as he spoke, "He is a wild creature, a being who walks unbidden on the earth. I told you he was as much a human as me. Even in that short time that I faced him, I could tell something about him was new, yet familiar,"

Alucard's voice was rising, and Integral found herself transfixed, and her eyes seemed to become sore and sorer as she stared into the crimson eyes of her servant, the eyes which were alive even in un-death. She could actually see the rise and fall of a long-dead heartbeat in them, a fire without light but of a far more solid and sinister form as it coiled in them, like a writhing serpent.

"He is an immortal, a true immortal. It was _age_ that I smelled on him and saw in him. It was an age that I have not seen in anyone or anything in such a long time. And I'm even willing to admit," Alucard was laughing now, "That I am younger than him,

He added a toneless afterthought, "Perhaps,"

Alucard was leaning forward; his right palm was resting on the edge of the desk before Integral. She was pushing back against the influence the vampire exerting on her, as much as she could. Thought now, was hard for her and the pressure was nearly stifling upon her, but her mouth moved into an order, even as Walter was preparing to intervene as he slipped his fingers into his pocket, into the rings that wielded deadly steel wires.

Just in case, the steward thought to himself. But it was not a good situation. Integral was in ill-shape to exert her dominion on the vampire, and Walter knew that failure to do so, would present a most dangerous prospect to the vampire.

Walter was almost a friend to Alucard, but he did not want to see the vampire free. Not yet.

"Alucard," she began, her throat was tight as she continued, "Move, back, now, Alucard,"

The vampire was ignoring the order, but his voice became quieter, "Gonard, the dragon, he has enslaved him somehow. The dog has no interest in Britain; he burns the churches under orders to do so,"

The redness and excitement in Alucard's eyes were dampening, but Integral was still held in a constricted trance, though she was breaking from it bit by bit,"

"Now, Alucard," she breathed. There was fire now, in her eyes instead, borne of rage and fury at this lack of respect from her servant, and at her own lack of power and authority to control him from doing so.

Alucard was no longer looking into Integral's eyes, but he tilted his head upwards, not exactly at the ceiling, but perhaps to the sky beyond, "He is a tool of a dragon now, not of humans, but it is still the same,"

"Now, Alucard!" Integral growled loudly, her knuckles were digging into the wood surface with the effort, "**Now!"**

At that moment, the feel of constriction was lifted, and Integral lurched forward as her physical pushing against the vampire's influence became un-resisted. Walter immediately stepped forward and gave Integral a bit of support as she breathed heavily from the exertion.

She looked with a face of plain fury to confront the vampire, but Alucard had turned away abruptly and she faced only his back.

"I'll look into the 'Chinese agent' for you, Master," he said carelessly as he made a good retreat through the door.

"You don't need to give me the orders. I'll take care of the last church, no worries," he added, with a smirk as he turned and walked into the corridor, making the door close behind him so that he could cut off his master's extensive reprimand.

"Come back here!" Integral nearly screamed, but Walter did his best to calm her.

"Please, Sir! You must have your rest! It's been a long night," he tried to say soothingly, though he was still partially troubled himself.

"I think, it's best to let Alucard take care of this himself this time," he finished.

Integral was still in the fierce throes of fresh anger, but she found that it was quickly abating.

Indeed, she was just damned tired with the whole thing, the failure of the mission, the noisy tabloids and news crews, her servant being an absolute ass, the extra order of blood she had to get...

Right then and there, Integral was reeling from exhaustion and her steward quickly supported her to her chair to rest.

Walter walked away from the desk and stood in front of it, and bowed respectfully.

"I shall bring you a cup of tea if you desire, Sir. I'm assuming you are retiring for tonight," he spoke civilly.

Integral knew that it was not a question. She had the memory of when she was younger, and that Walter always said these words to tell her to go to bed on time. She felt that it was best to follow his subliminal advice this time as well.

"Yes, yes, just bring the tea to my room," she responded, as she stood up, preparing to finally leave her desk for the first time in four hours.

Walter smiled, "I would be researching more on this...'agent' as well, Sir. Hopefully, I'll have some more information by tomorrow afternoon,"

He bowed one more time before leaving the room.

Integral tidied a few of the papers on her desktop, not really caring since her sheer workaholic tendency was already pushed beyond limit and endurance.

A photo slipped out from one the files in her hands. It was of the paladin regenerator of Iscariot, Alexander Anderson.

"_If some other religious zealot is running about London, it's one too many,"_

She scowled.

Indeed, there was 'one too many' already.

She tossed the files away, and walked wearily out of the room, happy to just leave her troubles behind on a table top for tonight.

------------------------------------------

**Note:**The alternative one-shot fanfic "Pain or The Powertrip" is NOT a continuation of Midian (since this fanfic is a long way from ending just yet) BUT it does feature the same original character, Tian. Tian is the being I created to match up with Alucard as being a more powerful and much older being than him, and basically used his character template for the fanfic though it wasn't for much but the use of Tian's powers. You can see another wilder and more furious side of Tian's personality in that fanfic.

Maybe, if enough people ask, I'll write about Tian, but I really don't know where to put it then. Probably on my own website.

P.P.S. I apologize if this is the last chapter you'll read in a long time. I have Prelims and Exams to handle, and this must take backseat for now.


	7. Remnant

**Impt to READ this**

Dear readers, I'm sorry to followers of the fic that I stopped writing any sort of fanfiction for over 3 years. Real-life and a change in career prompted this. My overall general decrease of interest in Hellsing and anime/manga was also a deciding factor (I currently work in the Digital animation and interactive media field).   
For Midian, I'd like to thank all who felt that Tian was such an interesting character. I'm just happy you accepted him and not have complaints of 'over-power' and such.   
Now, I'd like to point out that I will skip to the ending, because I'm far happier with it than the middle.   
The story originally involves a dragon, unicorn, and a Chinese man who apparently can transform into a dog/dog-like.   
I kept Tian, but what seemed like a good idea seems clunky now. The dragon and unicorn still exist in this story, I just don't want to write about them anymore. 

However, PLEASE continue to read this. I still love to write, and as much effort as before was put into this chapter as any other before.

PS: In part, I appreciate Hellsing and this fandom as a springboard for this original character, who is now a star of his own original manga produced in Singapore. He has a sizable cult following. 

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A troubling dark. 

Deep and pock-marked with mirrors of memory; shattering into more pieces and showing more images of time. 

The miasma of a dulled pain, red and livid, snaking and thrashing. 

The dark was bleeding into the light. 

_ Spirit to Beast or Demon. Beast to Man or Demon. Man to God or Demon. This is our sacred order. The passage of all of the Middle Kingdom. _

**I am the Dog of Heaven! I and my Belly of Iron! I wield the Simadhi Flame; the Death of Gods and Demons!**

You were the worm in the ear of an old woman. Then you became the Five-Coloured Dog, the favourite of the Emperor. You won a war and wed a Princess, and you would become a man. Then Heaven came down and took you and your children away, making you into warriors and the Servants of Heaven. **You became a God. A God in servitude to Gods.**

Then Heaven made a mistake, and you destroyed it. You became the Scourge. 

** Gods, what am I?**

Bleeding, rending into light. Tian opened the eye not covered by dirt and peered into a dull sun at dusk. A tall shadow covering most of it. 

_You are the God Dog who killed the Gods and devoured Demons. You are the child of the earth who brought Heaven to the ground._

"...I...I was a husband...the father of twelve..." Tian groaned. 

He pulled his hands slowly underneath him. The joints moved as if for the first time. He swore he heard them creak and shudder, as if he were an old man. 

"Need a hand?" the voice seemed to purr with slyness. 

Tian growled, twitching from his sleeping limbs. He stopped once he had both his arms underneath him to prompt his upper-body at an incline; and huffed. 

There was a pause. 

"Well?" Tian said slowly and indignantly, slowly twisting his head up to face the vampire. 

It was fairly hard from his position, so he focused on the shiny teeth. 

"...you actually want my help?" Alucard answered in surprise. 

With some effort, Tian managed to pull one hand up to his face and grimaced into it. 

"I just defeated, single-handedly I might add, your ancient half-crazy possessed dragon-mentor. To help _your_ master, I agreed to not only burn the body, but get rid of the remains by eating them. He wasn't tasty, if filling." 

"Now I just got my full memory back. My body's asleep, and I'm digesting. I won't be able to move for hours and I smell rain coming." 

Tian paused again, and still looking up at Alucard, he sighed. 

"So...if you wouldn't mind..." 

Alucard gave a smirk, but said nothing else. 

Helping Tian to his feet, he let the Asian man to use him as support as they shambled towards the waiting car and vans. 

"You're not getting into the car you know?" Alucard said as they neared where Integra stood, along with a contigent of armed personnel. 

"...as long as there's not a collar involved, I'm fine with the van." Tian sighed as the uniformed soldiers took him off of Alucard's hands, under Integra's watchful eye. 

"Heh, you never know. Her father put me in a strait-jacket." 

As metal chains and clasps were snapped onto his wrists and ankles, Tian did not resist and let the soldiers complete putting on the restraints. 

_'I think I'll snap these if I sneeze.'_ He thought derisively as he was loaded into the back of one of the vans. 

Just as they were closing the door behind him, Tian suddenly remembered something. 

"Weren't you in a dress most of the time?" He called out as the doors closed. 

Integra twitched. 

"...what?" 

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NOT THE END, PEOPLE! 

I'm just done for today. It gets pretty...ugly...and serious after this. Think politics, with the supernatural. Yeah, more than sparks fly...


End file.
